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In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil action brought by a plaintiff demands a legal or equitable remedy from a court. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment is in the plaintiff's favor, and a variety of court orders may be issued to enforce a right, award damages, or impose a temporary or permanent injunction to prevent an act or compel an act. A declaratory judgment may be issued to prevent future legal disputes.
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial. This article describes the development of legal aid and its principles, primarily as known in Europe, the Commonwealth of Nations and in the United States.
Earthjustice is a nonprofit public interest organization based in the United States dedicated to litigating environmental issues. Headquartered in San Francisco, it has 14 regional offices across the United States, an international program, a communications team, and a policy & legislation team in Washington, DC.
A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, and some states of Australia. Brazil is the only country in which an office of government-paid lawyers with the specific purpose of providing full legal assistance and representation to the needy free of charge is established in the constitution. The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution has been interpreted to require the US government to provide free legal counsel to indigent defendants in criminal cases, and public defenders in the United States are full-time lawyers employed by or under contract with the state or federal governments.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
A contingent fee is any fee for services provided where the fee is payable only if there is a favourable result. Although such a fee may be used in many fields, it is particularly well associated with legal practice.
In the United States, a citizen suit is a lawsuit by a private citizen to enforce a statute. Citizen suits are particularly common in the field of environmental law.
In criminal law, the right to counsel means a defendant has a legal right to have the assistance of counsel and, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, requires that the government appoint one or pay the defendant's legal expenses. The right to counsel is generally regarded as a constituent of the right to a fair trial. Historically, however, not all countries have always recognized the right to counsel. The right is often included in national constitutions. Of the 194 constitutions currently in force, 153 have language to this effect.
The Center for Individual Rights (CIR) is a non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm is "dedicated to the defense of individual liberties against the increasingly aggressive and unchecked authority of federal and state governments". The Center is officially nonpartisan. Its work focuses on enforcement of constitutional limits on state and federal power, primarily through litigation.
The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "best overall health care" in the world. In 2017, France spent 11.3% of GDP on health care, or US$5,370 per capita, a figure higher than the average spent by rich countries, though similar to Germany (10.6%) and Canada (10%), but much less than in the US. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.
Legal Momentum, founded in 1970, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the nation's first and longest-serving legal advocacy group for women in the United States. Betty Friedan and Muriel Fox were its co-founders and Muriel Fox is an ongoing leader of the organization. Carol Baldwin Moody became President and CEO in April 2018. The organization, founded as the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, became Legal Momentum in 2004. Legal Momentum is a multi-issue organization dedicated to advancing women’s rights and gender equality, particularly in the areas of equal education opportunities; fairness in the courts; ending all forms of gender-based violence; workplace equality and economic empowerment. The organization employs three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and educational initiatives. It is headquartered in New York City.
Legal financing is the mechanism or process through which litigants can finance their litigation or other legal costs through a third party funding company.
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, long known by its former name the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, is a New York-based national civil rights organization with the goal of changing discriminatory practices via advocacy and litigation. Privately funded, nonprofit and nonpartisan, it is part of the umbrella Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is a U.S. company based in Danvers, Massachusetts,, that provides collective copyright licensing services for corporate and academic users of copyrighted materials. CCC procures agreements with rightsholders, primarily academic publishers, and then acts as their agent in arranging collective licensing for institutions and one-time licensing for document delivery services, coursepacks, and other access and uses of texts.
The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) is a state law in the state of California. It makes it easier for minority groups in California to prove that their votes are being diluted in "at-large" elections by expanding on the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. In Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that there are certain conditions that must be met in order to prove that minorities are being disenfranchised: that the affected minority group is sufficiently large to elect a representative of its choice, that the minority group is politically cohesive, and that white majority voters vote sufficiently as a bloc to usually defeat the minority group's preferred candidates; the CVRA eliminated one of these requirements. Unlike the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is a federal law, the CVRA—a state law—does not require plaintiffs to demonstrate a specific geographic district where a minority is concentrated enough to establish a majority. Certain cities that have never had minority representation or have a history of minority candidate suppression can be liable for triple damages and be forced to make changes within ninety days. This makes it easier for minority voters to sue local governments and eliminate at-large elections. The Act was eventually signed into law on 9 July 2002.
The legal financing industry provides non-recourse legal financing to litigants. Sometimes this financing is funded from outside of the firm or from individual lawyer's finances, and then funneled through a third-party company. Financing is often for plaintiffs involved in personal injury, workers' compensation, and civil rights. The industry provides litigants with cash in a lump sum form upfront in exchange for a share of the litigant's future settlement or trial award. While the litigant awaits the resolution of their case, the legal financing industry provides for immediate relief from financial burdens such as mortgage payments, rent, medical bills, educational bills, daily expenses, or even legal fees.
The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) is a not-for-profit organization established in 2011 to provide legal assistance to researchers and institutions engaged in climate science facing legal challenges from private entities such as think tanks and legal foundations.
Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms, often in the fields of civil rights, civil liberties, religious liberty, human rights, women's rights, consumer rights, environmental protection, and so on.
Public interest law in Hong Kong is an emerging field. The chief vehicle for pursuing public interest claims is judicial review. This is the process by which decisions of the government are challenged in the courts. There has been a surge in judicial review cases since 2000. Environmental issues and minority rights are among the most litigated areas.
References
- ↑ http://earthjustice.org/about ("Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm"); http://www.celdf.org/about-us Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine (“The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm”)
- ↑ Volk, Kyle G. (2014). Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019937192X.
- ↑ Blitzer, Wolf (18 February 1998). "New Clinton Legal Defense Fund Created - February 18, 1998". CNN. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ↑ "Alaska: Palin Defense Fund Is Called Illegal". New York Times. Associated Press. 24 Jun 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- ↑ "Anderson Cooper 360 Transcript". CNN. 15 November 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ↑ http://www.aldf.org/section.php?id=3 Archived 2011-10-11 at the Wayback Machine ; http://www.celdf.org/about-us Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine ; Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Quigg, 932 F.2d 920 (Fed. Cir. 1991)
- ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-11-02. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ Brewington, Kelly (1 September 2005). "NAACP legal fund attacks Roberts as civil rights opponent". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ↑ Hamilton, Colby (5 October 2011). "Civil rights advocates propose their own redistricting maps". WNYC. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ↑ "Groups Sue State to Stop Live Bait Dog Training - Indiana News Story - WRTV Indianapolis". Archived from the original on 2011-10-13. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
- ↑ http://aaldef.org/programs/; http://www.legalmomentum.org/about/